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Organized Oral Session

Career Track

Hybrid Session

Session: : The Role of Traits in Urban Social-Ecological-Technological Systems

OOS 37-1 - A conceptual framework for urban ecological resilience using traits

Wednesday, August 9, 2023
8:00 AM – 8:15 AM PDT
Location: 255

    Presenting Author(s)

  • TM

    Timon McPhearson

    Professor and Director
    Urban Systems Lab, The New School, New York, United States

    • Co-author(s)

  • EA

    Erik Andersson

    Professor
    University of Helsinki
    Helsinki, Finland

  • FG

    Filipa Grilo

    PhD student
    cE3c-Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes & CHANGE-Global Change and Sustainability Institute, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, 1749-016 Lisbon, Portugal, Portugal

If nature-based solutions that depend on ecosystem structure and functioning are to be reliably and sustainably provided over time, then urban ecosystems themselves must be resilient to interacting local and regional disturbances and extremes. Here, we provide an Urban Ecological Resilience (UER) conceptual framework for urban social-ecological-technological systems (SETS) that relies on species diversity, abundance, and trait data to 1) support emerging urban ecology research, 2) provide a methodological approach for assessment, and 3) guide planning and management for urban ecological resilience. We discuss the need for urban ecological resilience assessment, the role of species traits, and provide a case study for how the UER framework can be operationalized using available local species and trait data.

In our empirical case study, we examine street trees in New York City to demonstrate a methodological approach for assessing their potential ecological resilience to climate induced stressors including urban heat, drought, and storms. We developed resilience indices for each species to each disturbance that are then mapped across the urban landscape. Each tree species was assigned a resilience index value for each stressor (heat, drought and storms), calculated as the mean of all trait specific resilience values within the stressor category. The overall resilience of each species was then calculated as the mean value of the resilience indices for the three stressors. We found that the most abundant street trees had higher values of drought resilience and overall (mean) resilience than less common species. Spatial analysis showed that drought resilience was correlated with both storm and heat resilience.

We argue that a trait-based indicator approach is useful to advance urban ecological resilience assessment. We provide the UER framework and set of nested equations and hypotheses to articulate how response and effect traits interact and may be further impacted by their biotic and abiotic environment to confer more or less resilience to a specified disturbance or multiple disturbances. The UER framework developed and tested here provides a critical conceptual starting point for urban ecological resilience evaluation important to ensure ecological resilience of nature-based solutions.